Prayers continued in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk’s synagogue on Friday
morning, despite a meteor exploding overhead, causing a shock-wave that shattered
windows and frayed the nerves of worshipers, Chabad Online
reported.
Participants in the morning prayer service ran for cover as all
of the building’s windows broke, local Chabad emissary Rabbi Yechiel Levitin
told COL.
“We heard a huge explosion above the synagogue and did not know
what it was,” Levitin told the website.
There was a “flash of light...
glass shattered all around, and people were trying to escape, but there was
nowhere to run.
“One of the prayer-goers ran outside to see what was
happening,” the rabbi continued.
“At that moment a large piece of glass
landed on the spot where he was sitting.
It was a revealed
miracle.”
In a trembling voice he recounted that the window of the
synagogue office also shattered, and he asserted that it was also a miracle that
nobody was inside that particular room at the time.
Members of the Chabad
hassidic movement have already begun soliciting donations for
repairs.
According to COL, worshipers resumed the service, despite the
lack of windows and subfreezing temperatures.
Rabbi Meir Kirsch, the
movement’s senior rabbi in Chelyabinsk, said that “many are frightened in the
city,” reported the Chabad.org website. On Friday, he called “for everyone to
gather together tonight for the Shabbat prayers and meal,” despite the
damage.
“We hope that together we could give each other faith and
encouragement, and educate everyone what they need to do to stay out of
danger.”
Chelyabinsk’s 1,130,132 residents had to deal with widespread
damage caused by the meteor, whose explosion caused property damage and injured
around 1,200 people.
In a statement, NASA noted that the estimate for
energy released during the event stands at “nearly 500 kilotons,” or more than
30 times the force of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the American
military in 1945.
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